The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1887-01-12

W. q. .ssss:
TIMELY SUGGESTIONS no Farm
ERS.
} From the Pen Of W.sL.gJones, in the
5sS Southern !Clltiyator for JAM
uarys 1857.

s.tSt ~ kVhNvhS oOEshAkuE, Va u HCWf JOHE
many questions. press themselves
on the / farmers attention. ! The
pitching Sof his; crops, the kind and
quantity OF fnanures to be used,
whether homemade manures, COM
postssor commercial fertilizers, tho
modes 5of8preparing hand, whether it
I should $be iturnedi over, or broken
with scooters, these with many others
come up for prompt and definite an.
swers. A good farmer always works
to q plan; the more thoroughly it is
matured and arranged, the more eco
nomically and perfectly lie can carry
1t out. He has been compared to q
general who plans a campaign, and
the comparison Is good one. Sim.
liar qualities are demanded in both.
Both have to make great many
different things work together to a
common, end. Now is the time for
the farmer to arrange his plans.
From the very beginning of the year
every lick that is made should have
q direct bearing on something which
follows. He should know just what
he ,is going to do, the means at his
command to do it with, and then his
constant study should be how to do
it in the best possible manner with
the least possible labor.
The first thing for him to decide
now Is the 'pitching" Of his crop,
how many acres shall he cultivate,
and how shall these be proportioncd,
among the different crops. AS land
was almost the only thing left the
farmer by the war, the feeling was
general that he must utilize that to
the fullest extent; that he must cult.
vate every foot Of his open land.
Greater mistake was never made.
Extensive, as opposed to intensive,
farming became the order of the day,
and thousands upon thousands Of
acres have been kept under cultiva-
tion which have not paid the cost Of
working them. Have you not done
that very thing, did you not do it
last yeare The question is, not how
many acres you can cultivate with
the stock you have, but how many
you can cultivate to most advantage
or with greatest clear profit. Gross
receipts are very deceptive; net re.
'ceipts tell the true story. Tho first
thing then to decide Is, how many
:acres on your farm will bear cultiva
ition in ordinary hoed and ploughed
crops and pay reasonable profit?
Each one must recall and scan close.
lily the history Of his farm and the
yields Of different fields, and then
decide the point for himself. We
can only warn against cultivating
lands that will not pay tho cost, and
urge the concentration Of labor and
manure on the most productive acres.
Don't feel that you are damaged by
letting good deal of your land lie
out to rest and recuperate. and don't
wait until it is thoroughly worn out
before you give it chance to recu.
perate. Thoroughly exhausted land
recuperates very slowly; that which
Is in fair condition will improve rap.
idly. Many farmers seem to think
they are doing wonderful things for
their lands if they SOW them down in
srnall grain, forgetting that grain,
like any other crop, will eventually
exhaust land. The rich wheat lands
of the North, which have been sown
continuously in wheat for a long
time, do not yield at present more
than half what they did when fresh.
True, cropping with grain is less ex-
haustive than the clean culture of
cotton and corn, because the soil is
less liable to wash under grain cul-
ture, and because its humus is not
so rapidly exhausted; but it is ex.
hausting, nevertheless, and all land
ought occasionally to have absolute
rest-~rest from the plough, rest from
: the. teeth OF stock.
But suppose the number of acres
that will bear cultivation with profit
to be decided, hoy shall they be pro-
portioned among different crops?
The kind Of crops raised and the ma.
ture Of the land must largely control
this matter; there is but one safe and
general rule which can be laid down.
The farmer must plant enough of
those crops which produce home sup.
plies to have abundance Of the latter
even in quite disastrous years. It is
useless to try to deceive yourselves
with figures in this point. No mat.
ter what figures say. If you can raise
your bread and meat and stock feed
without actual loss, by all means
raise them. 'You had better learn a
good deal over on that side, and raise
them even when you seem, in the
light of figures, to be losing some by
so doing. Strictly correct figures
perhaps do not lie, but it is a very
difficult thing to figure out just what
home.raised provisions do cost q
fermer. One thing, however is very
certain, the men who raise needed
home supplies are, as rule, pros.